Recommended Deep Cycle AGM Batteries?

team teri on 01/10/2018 - 23:00
Last edited 02/10/2018 - 12:02

My Belkin UPS died a while ago, it wasn't ideal anyway, even with plenty of battery charge left it would turn off after a set time.

Not getting a replacement, time for a DIY solution. Small solar panel, charger, deep cycle battery.

But what battery? There seems to be a lot of shoddy stuff out there, some downright fraud when it comes to Ah claims on Ebay for example. Then there's totally unaffordable top of the line stuff like Sonnenschein.

What's a good reliable place to buy something 'in between'? Say a home brand from a reputable seller?

I might still give the Aldi one a shot, but 38Ah is a tad small (and I went to the shop and weighed it, at 13kg including the cardboard box it came in a bit lighter than I would have liked). It would allow me to run a few Raspberry Pi's and perhaps the ADSL modem, but not other things I'd like to cover.

Anything recommended in the 100 to 150Ah range that doesn't break the bank?

After a bit more reading I've narrowed it down to 2 options:
If I want a brand name, Fusion seems to come up as reliable, and there is an Ebay seller with good prices, I.e. 100Ah for $268 here: https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/273110591948

Or if I ignore brand names and go by "the heavier the better" and calculate $/kg, I end up with this one here, 150Ah for $288:
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/112978640479

Opinions on those two?

Home & Garden Battery

Comments

    • team teri on 02/10/2018 - 01:40

      Got one yourself and used it for a number of years without trouble?

      12 years service life as specified on that site would be great, but why only 1 year warranty then?

      • AdosHouse on 02/10/2018 - 01:53

        I don't have one, I just ran across it while looking at 4wd stuff.

        12 years service life is a load of shit. My Optima Yellow Top is much better quality than this Chinese stuff and it didn't last 12 years.

  • user80cor on 02/10/2018 - 05:20

    https://www.australiandirect.com.au/

    Will be buying a dual battery system for a vehicle from these guys shortly but all the research i did seemed positive on their batteries.

  • eug on 02/10/2018 - 09:04

    FWIW I just recently replaced the 12V 105AH battery in our man lift. It was 6 years old and still working fine, I just thought it was time to replace it because it was 6 years old and I didn't want it to die halfway through a job.

    https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Century-Deep-Cycle-AGM-Battery-C…

  • tangcla on 02/10/2018 - 09:12

    I've got two Century batteries in my car (yes, my car needs two of them…). Has been fine.

  • eug on 02/10/2018 - 11:27

    My Belkin UPS died a while ago, it wasn't ideal anyway, even with plenty of battery charge left it would turn off after a set time.

    If it turns off after a set time, is there any point in putting in a larger battery?
    Or do you have a different UPS solution that you'll use?

    • team teri on 02/10/2018 - 11:49

      I've thrown out the remains of the Belkin. First the in-built battery died. I wired in an old car battery, that kept it going another year or 2 then the main unit failed.

      It was a < $100 UPS. Looking at options I didn't find anything that would have been much better at a reasonable price.

      I'm not buying an off the shelf solution. It will be DIY. The realisation that made that easy: I don't need 240V, all the devices I want to power run on ELV DC, most on 12V or less.

      Some Googling showed that other people have done this in much more elaborate settings, have a look at this guy for example:
      https://hackaday.io/project/7207-12v-ups

      • eug on 03/10/2018 - 13:03

        I don't need 240V, all the devices I want to power run on ELV DC, most on 12V or less.

        Oh, that's easy then. I thought you needed 240V as you mentioned the UPS earlier.

        • team teri on 04/10/2018 - 11:34

          Yeah, it still is a UPS, only cutting out the 240V bit.

          No point taking 12V DC from a battery, using an inverter to get it up to 240V AC and then back down via various power packs to 12V or 5V DC.

          I can use the 12V DC straight away (with cheap voltage stabiliser in between to be on the safe side). And 12V to 5V can be done with a $1 converter.

    • eug on 03/10/2018 - 13:02

      As he mentioned in the post, the Aldi one is a tad small.

  • joungs on 04/10/2018 - 22:18
    +1

    Hi OP have a look at this eBay store bought multiple batteries from them and never had an issue. Wait for an ebay site wide off sale and it's a great price too.

  • team teri on 06/10/2018 - 09:50

    Thanks for all the replies.

    The best offer I found was this:

    100Ah PowerSonic battery for $179 on Ebay (combine with any code, free delivery limited areas) or $174 on their own website (free delivery Australia wide).

    They dropped the price from $269 recently and that was already the best price by a wide margin for a brand name product with a very good reputation and proper documentation of cycle life vs DOD, etc.

    https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/400634846758

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